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Who owns Jerry Bickel chassis books?

10K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  1Gary 
#1 ·
I'm interested in some books about drag chassis fabrication by Jerry Bickel. Either the RT-1010 or RT-1015 package (http://www.jerrybickel.com/books-and-software-1.html). They are very expensive (+ international freight) and I'd like to know if any one here owns some of these books/what do you think?

Other books I have cover suspension geometry, fasteners, diffs etc but not much on the actual frame/chassis/cage. I'm ok with paying for good info, but it sure would be nice to have a flick through first!
 
#2 ·
Jerry Bickel Chassis Fabrication

The Racetech books are a little dated. They cover the way Firebirds were built in the late 90's. A lot of things have changed since then.

The good news is that JBRC will be releasing 2 new books on chassis fabrication in February of 2013. Volume 1 covers the tube chassis fabrication from start to finish. It is 144 pages with 350 photos. Volume 2 covers mounting a carbon fiber body and complete interior, including tubs, doors, trunk kit, windows, etc. with over 850 photos. It's the most comprehensive coverage of race car construction ever done.

The books are titled "Jerry Bickel's Complete Guide to Pro Chassis Construction". Volume 1 - Tube Chassis Fabrication and Volume 2 - Body & Interior.

Volume 1 starts with a bare chassis table and builds the floor tube by tube. Then the carbon fiber 2013 Camaro body is set in place over the floor, and he shows how to fit the main hoop, window bars and dash bar. Then the body comes off. The 4-link brackets are installed, and all of the other bars are added in one at a time, until by the end of the book, the tube chassis is complete and ready for the body to be attached.

Volume 2 takes the tube chassis from Volume 1 and they build a complete interior for the car including floors, firewall and tunnel. They refit the body, then hang the doors, including fitting the hinges, door handles and lock mechanisms and latches. They complete the windows and the windshield. They fit the front end, then fit the carbon fiber wheel tubs and trunk kit. They plumb the brake lines and fire lines. They install the wing, spill plates and wicker. Finally, they go over how to fit the scoop to the engine and the body.

At the end of Volume 2 the car is ready to go to the body shop for paint.

The books are going to be priced at $150 for the set, which is a bargain price. There are so many tips and tricks that will save you hours and hours and prevent you from ruining your raw materials that the payback is a no brainer.

The way they fit the tubes to the body at the beginning of Volume 1 is the same way you would fit the tubes to any composite body, not just the Camaro. It's just that he used a Camaro for this example. He's building a Pro Mod Mustang right now using the exact same techniques covered in the books.

Check for the ad launch in National Dragster early in 2013, or on Bickel's website, or call them to get notified when they are available. I think Bickel has a distributor in Australia for people in that part of the world.
 
#4 ·
You might contact the JBRC distributor in Australia and ask him to stock in some of the books when they become available. I know they pack shipping containers at Bickel's in St. Louis regularly to ship to Australia and it might save you on shipping rather than ordering it direct from America. Just an idea.
 
#7 ·
Jerry Bickel Chassis Fabrication

Yes you should buy a copy of the SFI specs if you want to build a chassis.

But, just to clarify, the SFI specs are for the roll cage only, not the entire chassis. And they are not really plans, more like general guidelines. Prospective chassis builders should get a copy of the SFI specs for sure, but they are not by any means a complete set of plans for a chassis, only recommended minimum tubing sizes, wall thicknesses and placements for various tubes that are critical for driver safety. The SFI specs don't address the rest of the chassis tubes that fall outside of those criteria.

In some cases the builder has options for tubing placement and configuration of the roll cage elements and those are covered in the SFI spec. For example, the front crossmember has to be one piece unless you opt for larger frame rails, then it can be 3 separate pieces.

Volume 1 of the new Bickel books references the SFI specs and suggests that the reader get a copy as well. If for no other reason than the specs change over time. I have a copy of the 25.1E spec for a full bodied tube chassis that I got in August, and it is informative but you couldn't build an entire chassis with only the information it contains. I think SFI is on 25.1F now, so it has changed in some way within the last few months (the letter is the revision level)

The bottom line is that the forthcoming Bickel books will walk you through an entire chassis build step by step, tube by tube. They are way more informative on how to build a chassis than just a copy of the SFI specs, but are not a substitute for the SFI specs. Having a copy of the SFI specs in hand while going through the Bickel books would be a good idea for anyone serious about building a chassis.
 
#9 ·
Jimbar99.....I take it that you are Jim Barfield who is the author of these books.....Sorry, but we do not allow commercial advertising on our threads........You can talk about the books etc, but no links.....thanks
 
#10 ·
No problem. I misunderstood your policy. I saw the link to the SFI spec page earlier in the thread where they sell their specs packages commercially through their for profit corporation (SFI Foundation Inc), so I just assumed that you do allow links to commercial sites that are relevant to the discussion at hand since they are commercial and the link was allowed. My mistake. I apologize. Just trying to provide information that was asked for.
 
#11 ·
No problem Jim...The above link is OK because it is not posted by someone from that company (as far as we know)....Now, if one of our members not associated with your company was to post your link as a reference, that would be fine.......Silly rules....lol
 
#12 ·
We had took a hard look at a used roller Pro-stock to buy.With us running 9.90 at the time decided we just didn't have enough motor to make it work right.My point is to melt what Jerry builds with whatever the rule book says for your intended class if you alittle light on the motor side.

Along with the other links,here are two the can fill in some of the blanks:

www.Meetmedal.com

All MetalShaping - Powered by vBulletin

Sign up and post what your doing.Both sites are very helpful.
 
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